India’s Space Programmes: Chandrayaan – 1

The Moon, being the closest object to Earth, was the first target of space missions.

• The Soviet Union launched the Luna series. Luna 2 (1959) was the first to reach near the Moon.
• Between 1959 and 1975, 15 Luna missions studied the Moon’s gravity, radiation, and surface. Four of them returned with rock samples. All were unmanned.
• The USA conducted Moon missions between 1962 and 1972, including manned missions.
• In July 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

India’s space agency, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), launched its first moon mission named Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 under the Chandrayaan program.

Key Events:

• The orbiter entered lunar orbit on November 8, 2008.
• On November 14, 2008, the MIP was released and hit the Moon near Shackleton Crater at the south pole at 15:01 UTC.
• The impact site was named Jawahar Point.
• With this mission, India became the 5th country to reach the Moon’s surface after the Soviet Union (1959), USA (1962), Japan (1993), and ESA (2006).

Achievements:

1. The most important discovery was the presence of water molecules in the moon’s surface soil.
2. The orbiter operated for 312 days, although it was originally intended to last 2 years.
3. The mission ended on 28 August 2009 due to technical issues like thermal problems and failure of the star tracker.
4. Despite the early end, the mission achieved most of its scientific goals.
5. Cost of the mission: ₹386 crore (~US$88.73 million).

Main Objectives:

1. To design, develop, launch, and orbit a Moon spacecraft using an Indian-made launch vehicle.

2. To perform scientific experiments that would:

• Prepare a 3D map of both the near and far sides of the moon with high resolution (5–10 m).
• Conduct chemical and mineral mapping of the entire Moon surface, focusing on elements like magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, iron, titanium, radon, uranium, and thorium.
• To test the impact of a Moon Impact Probe (MIP) for future soft landing missions.
• To increase scientific knowledge and boost India’s space technology.

Scientific Goals:

1. High-resolution imaging and mapping of north and south polar regions (permanently shadowed areas).
2. To search for surface or subsurface water ice, especially near the poles.
3. Identification of chemical elements in lunar highland rocks.
4. Study chemical layers of the lunar crust, including the South Pole Aitken Region (SPAR).
5. Measure the height differences of lunar surface features.
6. Observe the X-ray spectrum (above 10 keV) and get stereo images of most of the Moon’s surface.